Now 10-0 to start the year, the Mountaineers may be in the midst of their best start to the season in history.
Rivaling this season for that title, though, is the 2019-2020 regular season, which saw WVU win 10 of its 11 non-conference games and its first three of the Big 12 regular season. The Mountaineers left the impressive run ranked No. 19 and with two wins over top-25 schools.
As WVU gears up for its final out-of-conference game against Niagara on Thursday, the team will be channeling one of those upsets, which occurred exactly four years before.
Two games after taking down No. 10 Mississippi State in the Bulldogs’ Humphrey Coliseum, the newly ranked Mountaineers traveled to Orlando for the Florida Sunshine Classic. In the first game, WVU defeated No. 19 Michigan State 63-57.
West Virginia trailed initially but caught up to the Spartans in the second half. After matching MSU’s 15 points in the first quarter, WVU was down 30-27 at halftime before taking off for two 18-point quarters to secure the victory.
Much of WVU’s advantage came from a different place from Mark Kellogg’s current team. Instead of the perimeter-based press and zone defense, Mike Carey’s 2019 squad depended on making stops in the paint.
WVU outperformed Michigan State 10 blocks to three at the Florida Sunshine Classic, en route to a season average of 4.6 blocks per game. 6’1″ sophomore Kari Niblack led the interior charge, tallying seven blocks and six defensive rebounds.
The team’s offensive approach targeted the interior, as well, once again led by Niblack. The sophomore shot 8/10 for a career-high 21 points without a single three-point attempt. Guards Tynice Martin and 2021 WNBA fourth overall pick Kysre Gondrezick scored in double-digits as well, marking 11 and 14 points respectively.
As a team, the Mountaineers did not shoot particularly well, going 20/59 from the field and 6/21 from three but instead capitalized on free throw opportunities to win. WVU made 17 of 20 from the line to outdo Michigan State’s 10/17 performance and gain the scoring edge.
While the current team will want to embrace this bright moment in Mountaineer history entering the Niagara game, it will want to avoid what followed.
After closing the nine-game winning streak five games later, WVU went 4-11 in its remaining games, dropping off AP rankings after the four-game losing streak that started it all.
WVU finished 7-11 in Big 12 games and 17-12 overall, good enough for seventh in the conference. The powerful start to the season was countered by losses and COVID-19 cancellations to close the year, keeping the Michigan State victory in a vacuum of that time.
With such a hot start for this season’s Mountaineers, WVU’s new-look gameplan will likely include learning from history and avoiding that bump in the road. Thursday’s game tips off at 2 p.m.
